What Does It Take to be a Good Assayer ?

In some jurisdictions, chief assayers must meet certification standards. In the state of  Arizona, the law requires that all in-state assays be performed under the review of an Arizona certified assayer. This certification provides an added sense of security to clients, but it does have limitations. A "certified" signature is not a fool-proof guarantee of assay quality.

An assay office's quality control and assayer training is a key sign of quality. All assays, including "certified" assays, are only as good as that weakest link. Be aware that assays released under a certified assayer's signature may be performed by non-certified assayers.  In addition, certified "book knowledge" may not guarantee practical skill. Most certification programs, like Arizona's, are by written exam and, in the absence of "double-blind" practical skill demonstrations, written exams may mislead. Only one certification jurisdiction in the world verifies practical skills (British Colombia, Canada). Unfortunately, although some labs standards may meet B.C. standards, B.C. certification continues to require British Colombia residency at the time of certification. (Click here to learn more about B.C. certification.)

This web site classifies assayer skills into seven main areas. The table below provides links for viewing information related to these skills. Please note that there is a degree of overlap between areas; working assayers integrate these skills as needed. In addition, necessary skills vary considerably between assay labs, depending on the needs of clients.

• In the first column, click on area icons to call pages illustrating activities in a working assay lab.
• The second column has text links to additional descriptive and background information about each skill area. (Note: If column two text is not underlined, expanded descriptive or background information in not yet on-line.)
• The third column provides short summary descriptions of the type of material called by the links in the first two columns. Links to additional related material may be included in these summary statements.

Icons linked to assayer pictures	Text linked to additional skill details	Skill Area Summary / Description Note: In the training section of this web site, area skill patterns are illustrated through a series of sample quizzes. Click here to access skill area quizzes.
	Laboratory  Safety (general)	All assayers need an understanding of the core principles of laboratory safety. Assayers begin their career with some form of general (introductory) safety training. (Commercial labs follow OSHA guidelines; mine site labs follow MSHA guidelines.) More advanced general safety principles and knowledge usually embeds within area training, but some advanced general issues, such as lab design, exposure monitoring, health control design, etc. fit under this umbrella. (Although many companies have plant-wide loss control specialists to monitor these issues, senior assayers and supervisors need to remain informed on advanced general safety issues.)
	Sample   Preparation	Assay results are only as good as the representative quality of the material assayed. Sample preparation deals with the theory and practice used to create representative samples suitable for analysis. Note: 1)  On this site, at the basic level, physical processing steps which are done by sample prep technicians, but commonly classified with metallurgy, such as particle size screening, are included under sample preparation skills. 2)  In some assaying laboratories, the term sample preparation is broader. This web site does not classify processing skills that apply chemical alteration of sample material as "sample prep". Digestions, or other chemical processes used to convert a sample into a form suitable for instrumental analysis, are either assigned to chemistry (fire or wet) or, if more convenient, sometimes directly to instrumentation.
	Chemistry    (fire)	Fire chemistry (fire assay) is a specialized form of assaying which usually only applies to the analysis of gold, silver, and other precious metals. (Base metal applications are obsolete.) Fire methods use extreme heat on dry reagents, combined with sample material, to separate analytes (gold silver, etc.) from base material for analysis.
	Chemistry    (wet)	Wet chemistry, for the purposes of this web site, is essentially the techniques and applications of general and applied analytical chemistry applicable to the needs of assayers. This includes, but is not limited to, titrations, reagent makeup, gravimetric techniques, and digestion chemistry.
	Instrumentation    derived       analysis	On this web site, instrumentation skills refer to instrument-based measurement techniques such as atomic absorption, atomic emission (ICP, etc.), infra-red methods (LECO, etc.), colorimetry, etc.
	Computer /   Administrative       support	In modern labs, an assayer is crippled without computers. They are used for tracking, communicating, and filing assay and assay related data (LIMS, Quality control, labor efficiency analysis, calculation spreadsheets, method documentation, web based background research, etc.). A senior assayer that doesn't understand computer and administrative support structures is at a severe disadvantage.
	Metallurgical /    Process      support	Assayers are not metallurgists, but they do perform process support procedures and assays that require an understanding of process metallurgy. (The partnership can be uneasy at times; metallurgists sometimes have different central priorities than assayers.)
	Other	This is an open spot for adding information that doesn't fit within the structure listed above.